


the sons and daughters of hungry ghosts

by hellbeast



Series: freedom above all things [the extended mix] [4]
Category: Bleach, Naruto
Genre: Barely Canon Compliant, Crossover, Grimmci: i wake up every morning n do what the fuck i want, Other, ninja are suspicious by trade so grimmci has decided to be as sus as possible
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-14
Updated: 2018-10-14
Packaged: 2019-08-02 05:29:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,288
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16298984
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hellbeast/pseuds/hellbeast
Summary: Genma isn’t sure what it is that makes him look twice.





	the sons and daughters of hungry ghosts

**Author's Note:**

> i honest-to-gods thought i already put this one up along with the other two but uh???? i guess not??

Genma isn't sure what it is that makes him look twice.

Summons are a dime a dozen in a Hidden Village, and it's hardly unheard of to see them without their summoners. They're a secure way to pass along information and objects; they're trained to be lethal and can always cancel their own summoning to get out of a sticky situation.

This, though.

He's on wall duty, which is largely boring. The only highlight comes in the form of patrolling ANBU squads and the quick flashes of sign and chakra flares he exchanges with them. Kotetsu and Izumo are on gate duty, playing a creative game of fast fingers with a handful of senbon. In all honesty, Genma spends most of his time on wall duty wishing for something interesting to happen. Anything to break up the monotony, despite the fact that the monotony means good things in terms of village security. He can't help it; shinobi crave action.

Genma is currently on duty in sector 4-C, which overlooks a fairly busy street and only a small portion of Konoha's bustling market. It's normal, all things considered.

Except.

There's a fucking _tiger_ stalking its way through the street.

Only, Genma's not entirely sure of that. It being a tiger, he means. It's certainly the largest cat summons he's ever seen in the village, but everything about it is... **wrong**.

What Genma first mistakenly assumed were stripes are more like lines or segments, partitioning the cat's body into neat, almost symmetrical portions. And it doesn't have fur, Genma realizes upon his second, closer look. Instead, the white of its body gleams and reflects light in an entirely inorganic way. It's moving further into Konoha proper, away from Genma's perch up on the wall. Something at the end of its tail glints in the sunlight.

"Shiranui to base," Genma says into the throat mic of his radio. "Quick question."

"Go ahead, Shiranui-san," the current Operator tells him, after the briefest of pauses.

"Any new summoners in the last couple weeks?" Genma asks, not looking away from the not-tiger. It's moving casually, meandering from one side of the street to the other whenever something catches its eye. There's a Konoha-blue cloth tied around its neck.

"Negative, Shiranui-san."

Genma isn't surprised.

"I've got something fishy in 4-C," Genma reports, though it's really a formality at this point.

Sure enough, the Operator tells him, "You're replacement is already in transit. Safe hunting, Shiranui-san."  


* * *

Alarmingly, the cat—it's a cat the same way that anything that has four legs and barks is a dog, but Genma isn't sure what it is, and so 'cat' will have to do for the moment—notices him immediately.

Genma has his chakra clamped in tight and close, and from the moment he made his way down the wall, he's been moving slowly and surreptitiously forward, never in the cat's exact direction. Even so, within seconds, its ears flick and it turns its head and meets his gaze firmly. Its eyes are the white-blue of lightning. Genma freezes.

The cat blinks, once. And then keeps walking.

A moment later, Genma takes one careful step forward. That gets him another flick of the ear, but nothing else.

Genma keeps following, taking longer strides, making small—almost effortless—jumps with shunshin. The cats just continues along, carelessly. Within five minutes, Genma is walking leisurely at its side.

"Yo," he says, carefully. The cat is, nerve-wrackingly, far larger than he first thought, the slope of its shoulders more or less even with the top of his head.

"Yo, shinobi-san," it rumbles, with a voice that Genma swears he can feel rattling in his very bones. It flicks an ear in his direction, glancing at him from the corner of one enormous eye. "How can I help ya?"

"Well," Genma bites down on his senbon, bouncing it between his teeth. He's not afraid, exactly, but Genma is under no reservations that this... whatever it is could cause him a fair amount of damage. Its paws are bigger than his head. "Depends on what you're doing in my village."

It doesn't, actually. Protocol is to take down any unknown entities with extreme prejudice and turn over whatever's left to T&I. Genma, however, does not like his current chances; from this short distance he can now see that its tail ends in a curved blade, like a scorpion. With his luck, it's probably poisonous, too.

For a moment, Genma expects it to play dumb; it's wearing Konoha-blue around its neck the way most larger summons wear their hitai-ates, and that was obviously enough to get it disturbingly close to Hokage Tower, wandering the streets and garnering next to no attention.

Instead of playing dumb, though, it turns its head down to give him a slow, almost painfully long look. "Just delivering a message, shinobi-san."

Its voice is deeper than Genma's own and the way it curls even lower in amusement makes Genma feel distinctly small. Not quite hunted, because there's not even a hint of malice, but Genma is suddenly acutely aware of the fact that it could probably bite him in half with very little effort.

Before Genma can even try to come up with a response, ignoring the way his instincts are a screaming tangle of _flight-flight-flight_ , it continues, "You're welcome to accompany me."

Genma should say yes. He very desperately wants to say no, and to forget that he ever looked twice.

But shinobi are nothing if not quick-thinking under pressure, and there is no pressure quite like steadily rising dread, so Genma shrugs and drawls, "Sure."

The cat grins, a quick flash of bright fangs. Every single nerve in Genma's body jolts.

He just hopes he isn’t making too terrible of a mistake.

* * *

Terrifyingly enough, the cat does in fact happen to be making its way to Hokage Tower. With Genma at its side, it garners a little more attention, quick glances and more than one startled 'all clear?' flashed in Genma’s direction. He signs back 'covered' and tries desperately not to feel like he's lying.

They make it all the way up to the Hokage's office before someone actually stops them. Genma, who still isn't quite sure what's going on, can only imagine the intensive Security Protocol training in store for Konoha’s elite. He can already _taste_ Morino's disappointment. Genma will probably get a commendation for confronting the cat, if he hasn't been eaten by the end of all this.

Before they make it to the secretary's desk, an ANBU agent—donning an almost unbearably ironic cat mask—materializes out of nothing, one hand already reaching up for the tanto at their back.

"Hold."

To Genma's immense surprise, the cat comes to a halt easily, showing not even the smallest sign of distress. Genma supposes he wouldn't be too stressed either, if he were big enough to bite a grown man right in half.

He might be fixating. In his defense, those fangs were longer than some swords. And most assuredly sharper.

"State your business," the ANBU demands.

To that, the cat cocks its head and it narrows its eyes in the first display of annoyance that Genma has seen it make. He hadn't realized how much work its purposeful levity was doing, because just that small sign of displeasure is enough to make Genma's heart rabbit in his chest. He can feel the sweat beading along his neck.

" _I'm_ delivering a message," it says, and Genma blinks at the deliberate emphasis. " _You're_ going to the hospital."

Shit.

The ANBU stiffens at the same that Genma does. There's a ring of metal as the tanto pulls free and Genma takes a half-leap backwards, spitting his senbon with pinpoint accuracy into the the base of the cat’s neck—

There a tinny _ping_ as the senbon harmlessly bounces off and clatters to the ground.

"Shit," Genma hisses. The ANBU falters, tanto held level but uncertainly. Genma is honestly not sure that the blade will do the two of them any good.

They both tense as the cat turns to face them, but then it… rolls its eyes.

"That wasn't a threat," it says into the silence. It dips its head to sniff at the senbon and then makes a face that might be surprise. "You smell like blood and infection and exhaustion. Why are you even on duty."

Its tone is so flat that it takes Genma a moment to realize that the words are a question. The ANBU—injured, apparently—visibly hesitates.

"Besides, the old monkey already knows I'm here. Idiot."

The hesitation drops away as though it had never been, and the ANBU agent bristles.

"You will show Hokage-sama the proper respect—“

The cat stands back up to its full height, purposefully towering over the two of them. Genma sends up a brief prayer that he dies quickly.

Before he can so much as blink, the ANBU is on the ground, one gigantic paw holding them firmly in place. The ANBU wheezes out a breath and Genma is clumsily, desperately reaching for a kunai, even though he knows it won't do shit—

Two things happen:

The cat leans in, ignoring the way the ANBU wheezes a little more, and it snarls into the operative's face, " _Go_. To the fucking _hospital_. _**Idiot**_."

In that very same breath, Sarutobi Hiruzen pops his head out of his office and calls out with clear irritation, "Stop haranguing my operatives and get in here."

There's a pause.

The cat lifts its paw from the ANBU's chest and takes a prim step backwards, looking like nothing so much as a house cat deciding that it won't kill that mouse today, after all. The ANBU operative slowly climbs to their feet, tensions hiking their shoulders up high. Genma, frozen in the act of brandishing a kunai by the unexpected appearance of his Hokage, officially has no clue what it happening.

The Sandaime presses his fingers to his temple with a sigh.

"Shiranui, my office. Neko, go to the damn hospital."

The ANBU skirts around the cat slowly and then shunshins away. Genma shoots the cat an uneasy look, only to be brought up short when it steps in close, one gargantuan paw nudging the back of his thighs until he stumbles forward.

"You never let me have any fun," it complains, presumably to the Sandaime, even as it herds Genma into the office as though he's a misbehaving kitten.

"You having fun means countless stacks of paperwork," Sandaime-sama grumbles, closing the office door behind him.

The Hokage's office is large but well lived-in: there's a large bookshelf against the far wall, and a collection of loveseats and a soft before it, set in a semicircle around a burnished coffee table. When Minato-sama had been in office, it was common sight to see stacks of books and scrolls placed haphazardly across everything, messily-scrawled notes pinned to the corkboard behind the desk. Sarutobi-sama keeps himself a little less cluttered, filling the empty spaces with meticulously cared for potted plants. Rumor has it that half of them were grown by the Shodaime himself.

Genma has been in the Hokage's office on multiple occasions, and for a variety of reasons, but he has never felt so distinctly out of place and actively aware of it as he does in this moment. The cat throws itself into the corner, sprawled across all three pieces of furniture without a care. Each loveseat holds a pair of limbs and the bulk of its torso rest on the larger four-seater sofa. Its tail curls up off the arm of the outer love seat, blade tapping at the wood of the window sill.

Sandaime-sama seats himself behind his desk, pipe already in his mouth. He purses his lips and then points to Genma.

"Not a word of this leaves this room."

Genma, fallen into parade rest by habit, nods sharply. "Of course, Hokage-sama."

"I'm raising your clearance to SSS," Sarutobi continues, and then, when Genma's eyebrows raise of their own accord, "Yes, it's _that_ serious."

"Lighten up," the cat says. "It's just little ol' me."

Genma blames his current confusion over everything that's happened in the last two hours—and the last bits of adrenaline floating around in his veins—for the way he deadpans, without thinking, " _Little_."

The Hokage sighs.

The creature—Genma is getting more and more certain that it’s not a cat at all—laughs, a rough dog-like bark. "This one, I like." Genma opens his mouth, probably to say something else ill-advised, but the creature continues, "He's my liaison."

"What," Genma says.

At the same time, Sarutobi thunders, "Absolutely _not_."

The creature reacts neither to Genma's confusion nor to the Hokage's defiance. Instead, it settles more firmly into the couch, achieving that liquid state known to all felines, and grins. "It's either him or you-know-who."

Genma does not know who. Genma is helplessly lost.

The Sandaime, who clearly knows who, grits his teeth, looking furiously pained. " _ **Fine**_ ," he growls, accompanying the concession with a wordless noise of frustration. He says again, a little more composed, "Fine."

To Genma, he gestures with his pipe and says, “Shiranui, you’re being promoted to ANBU status effective immediately.”

“ _What_ ,” Genma repeats dumbly.

The Sandaime continues without pause, “Your first and, as of now, only assignment is to act as liaison to Rokuten.”

“Rokuten,” Genma parrots, starting to feel like a broken record or one of those imitation birds from Rain Country. He honestly can’t help himself. “As in _Dairokuten_?”

 _Dairoku as in the sixth **what**_ , a smaller part of his brain demands.

The creature grins sunnily, not deterred in the least by Genma’s skepticism. “Nice to meet ya, Shiranui-san. Call me Roku if you’d like.”

**Author's Note:**

> 第六天 as in the sixth heaven of the desire realm. It’s an _incredibly_ Buddhist word and Genma refuses to even contemplate the idea that a six and a half foot cat-thing would be religious, let alone a buddhist.


End file.
